with Reroll & Ignore Injury

Archive for February, 2010

It’s not true. Firstly, I’m not a gentleman, not in the archaic sense: I still have to work for a living. Secondly, it’s not the kind of blonde you’re thinking. And lastly, I’m not talking about a classic movie. I’m talking about Pure Blondes, not Marilyn Monroe (who’s not a natural blonde, apparently). I’m actually referring to this:

This is currently my favourite beer. Taste is ultra smooth. Colour is clear golden (ie BLONDE, hence the name). Full strength (actually only 4.6% proof; still stronger than Carlsberg, I think), full flavoured. All natural, no artificial ingredients (this is apparently the law in Beer Paradise, aka Germany BUT THIS IS AN AUSTRALIAN PRODUCT). And contains SEVENTY PERCENT LESS CARBOHYDRATES. That’s right, it’s weight-watcher friendly.

A young couple in love were in an automobile accident the night before their wedding, and both were killed. In heaven, they approached St. Peter. “My fiance and I really miss the opportunity to have celebrated our wedding vows. Is it possible for people in heaven to get married?”

St. Peter replied, “I’ll tell you what — after you have gone through an appropriate waiting period, we will talk about it again.”

Five years pass and the couple still wanted to get married. They approached St. Peter again, and he told them, “I’m sorry, I know that five years was a long time to wait, but there’s a problem. You’ll have to wait a little bit longer.”

Another five years pass, when St. Peter excitedly approached the couple. “Your wait is over, and you may marry now. Thanks for your patience.”

The couple got married.

Unfortunately, soon after the wedding, the couple realized that they were not compatible. Going to see St. Peter, they asked if their was such a thing as divorce in heaven. St. Peter gave them a cold stare, and said sternly, “Look, it took us ten years to find a minister up here. Do you have any idea how long it’ll take to find a lawyer?”

OMG. What an utterly uninspired effort, GW. Good job of deflating our enthusiasm, thank you very much! You’d think that after the build-up from the incredible Space Hulk sculpts and the goodies that the rumour mill has been promising, there would be at least a half-way awe-inducing sneak peek of the BA minis to come…

But no. It was too much to expect from the blokes at Nottingham.

Right. Let’s see what we have here:

It’s all old stuff except for the Baal and the Tactical Squad at the back. (That Sternguard unit painted in BA colours isn’t fooling anyone, GeeDub!)

And the new stuff is… What? Where is it…? (squint, squint) Oh, you’ve got a couple of winged shoulder pads (facing the wrong way from the camera too), teardrop icons that I could easily green stuff myself, and slightly different helmets. And what’s up with that wooden looking Sergeant? That head, that pose, that simplistic design (BAs are supposed to be ornate!), that horrid proportion… NOT COOL. If I didn’t know this was the new BA stuff, I would have thought this was a Tactical Squad converted by an amateur from a regular Tactical Squad. For goodness sake, the boring poses for these guys are worse than even the Space Wolves Pack. That’s saying something.

OK, the angel icon on the front hull of the Baal is somewhat nice, but the rest of the tank looks just like the old Baal. Why bother?

And didn’t the earlier official text mention speedy, ferocious and brutal deepstrike assaults? Loads of Dreadnoughts? Angelic symbology? Where’s all of THAT? Not a jump troop in sight. No Dreadnought, Librarian or otherwise. The force looked like they foot-slogged over the snowscape, not even bothering to strut a bit for the camera, what more convey ‘brutal deepstrike’ to us!

(at this point, I’m not even expecting a spanking new skimmer transport. Just give us decent new sculpts of existing units. It’s the least you could do, after BT, DA and SW got their chapter specific sprues)

I’m not saying that the release in April is going to suck. I’m saying that I’m not impressed by this sneak peek.

The Game: Capture & Control; Pitched Battle. I deployed and went first.

Summary: I’m not doing a turn by turn analysis. In short, I was totally owned by my inexperience. I ended up with only 1 Devastator Squad, 1 Landspeeder and 1 Tactitcal Squad (the rhino was immobilized but not destroyed). He had 2 Scout Squads, Terminator Squad, Dreadnought and both Special Characters, plus both objectives. In hindsight, it was a close one. If the dice had rolled otherwise, I might have ended up with a draw. But mistakes were made mainly on my side, so I ‘deserved’ the loss.

What I learned:

1. Force Composition. I was royally screwed by my ‘on-the-fly’ list creation. To get into the game quickly, I simply took up the simplest ‘nothing fancy’ units. They proved unequal to the task, and failed pinning tests with alarming frequency (damn I miss Chaos & Fearless!). I should have a variety of shooty and cc units, instead of concentrating only on shooty, as I had no answer when Lysander, Pedro and the Termies came charging in. Actually, if I wanted shooty, I needed firepower of a calibre that would scare Space Marines. And I didn’t. Also, more thought should have gone into the synergy of the army as a whole – I didn’t know how it was all going to work. It might have worked better for me personally (due to my playstyle) if I had taken at least one Special Character, and built my force around his ‘special’ characteristics.

2. Don’t deploy & go first just because some bystander suggested it. I realised that for the last couple of games, I had gone first & LOST. When I went second, I WON. This probably depends on terrain and deployment and scenario of a given game, but for some reason, I’ve been unable to resist going first when I’m given the opportunity to, even when it’s clearly more advantageous to see where the enemy deployed first and going second. Must resist!

3. Lascannons don’t do squat to Land Raiders. Even with 8 Lascannons shooting over 2-3 turns, the Crusader was unharmed. In return, it killed off an entire combat squad in one round of shooting, and put the hurt on a few others before it finally got blasted to smithereens by only the 2nd melta shot. If only the damned Landspeeder had come in from reserves earlier!

4. Don’t get distracted. The earlier part of the game was dominated by my short-sighted need to stop the Crusader. I should have devoted more shooting from the Tacticals and Devastators to the scouts and the sternguard in the beginning, as in the end, it was the meltas that did the Crusader in! Focus on the objective!

5. Underestimating Scouts. Simply didn’t realise that in 5th edition, sniper rifles are rending and pinning. They stopped the Devatators from shooting for at least 2 solid rounds! Damn!

6. Plasmacannons are a godsend against marines. When I did get the opportunity to shoot, the Plasmacannons virtually obliterated both enemy sternguard squads! If only I had seen the lone sternguard hiding behind the wall! If I had known, I would have gotten 2 more rounds of shooting (instead of 1) to ensure my objective was not taken by the enemy! Also, I made the mistake of dividing the Lascannons and Plasmacannons in the Devastators. I think it’s more effective to have the same heavy weapons when using Devastators.

7. Model placements. This proved critical, as among other instances, it prevented my Lascannon from shooting anything other than 1 squad of Scouts (if I moved, the Heavy Weapon can’t shoot in that Turn)! I must remember to put the guy way out where he can see as much as the field as possible. According to the rules, as long as at least half of the rest of the squad has cover, the entire squad is counted to be in cover!

All in all, it was a highly entertaining and educational game! BTW, this is the largest 40k game I’ve played. Bigger seems definitely better!

Still undecided about the colour scheme. The newest test paint I’ve done:

And the previous Honour Guard (Standard Bearer) that I did years ago:

Which is better?

PS: The Japanese / Chinese characters at the top of the banner pole is a transliteration for “Blood Angel”. I wanted to put some words into the banner, but the tiny, downward scrolling parchment wasn’t conducive to the use of Roman alphabets, not if I wanted it to be clearly legible.